‘I’m Annie’, Chairman declares loudly. ‘My name is Gabby,’ T states just as loudly, not to be out done by her brother. For the past couple of days, the children have been saying these statements often. Annie and Gabby are two of their cousins whom they met at their grandma’s and spent the recently concluded holidays with amongst seven other adrenaline – filled, very active children. It is nine days today since we returned to Lagos, and back to our lives but apparently the memories of the holidays are still playing back constantly in the minds of my children. And who can blame them? They had a whale of a time with their cousins! There was Santa Claus with four presents each per child, their favourite cartoon characters featuring prominently. Barney. Mickey Mouse. Ben 10. They played games and had competitions – artwork (creating a Christmas card) competition, dancing chairs and fashion parade. Of course, this meant more presents. Yay! They had more ice – cream and sweets during the two – week period than I would normally allow in two months. Yum, yum. Everyday was Christmas day at grandma’s! Or how else would they describe going to[…]

Though Chairman is old enough to sit by himself (with a seatbelt on) in the car, he’d rather perch on my laps whenever we go out. Doing so means he has a clearer and better view of the passing scenery. That’s why he wants the human elevation. As the car moves along, he’d read out the numbers on the buildings, colours of cars, comment on the traffic lights, which car was horning the loudest, the different road signs, the school bus filled with cute, little faces… At first, I refused him weighing down on my legs for this regular ritual as it encroached into the things I wanted to do during the ride, especially if the destination was school. I always used the time as my checklist. Children’s’ mouths devoid of telltale signs of breakfast? Check! Hair, clothes, shoes and socks look neat with no speck of food or stain? Check! Snacks and drinks in their bags? Double check! But this is not to be as Chairman’s yellow body partially blocks my view and compels me to participate in his activity. The entire trip is a whole process for him, one in which he is completely involved. From opening and[…]

The following takes place between July 19th and August 23rd. For national peace, local stability and my personal peace of mind, I usually do not tell T when we’re going visiting or on holidays or if we’re expecting family who are staying for more than a week. She finds out when we arrive at our destination or just before our guests walk through the front door. If not, she’ll relentlessly hound me about the when, who and where until she wears me out. This time was no different; some of her cousins were visiting and she knew nothing about about it. Others were joining in on the holiday fun later on but both of us would know when it became necessary. As always, I knew first then she (who was on a need – to – know basis) became aware much, much, much later. Nevertheless, at any given time between the period stated above, there were at least four children in the house — raising the decibel of noise significantly, testing my partially horned referee skills (and non – existent UEFA ones) while providing material for this blog. All of T’s cousins arrived at different times of day as though[…]